Tall l.h.

45.

Christmas Morning we were all sitting around the living room talking. No one was making an effort to open presents until Luke started to get antsy. He was such a little kid. He didn't even want to open his own presents. He just wanted to open all of Pippa's.

So when it was time he sat down on the floor with a very sleepy Pippa in his lap, Liz passed him all the gifts with her name on them.

"Here's one that's yours." she said at some point handing him a red wrapped box. He scrunched his nose and waved his hand at her.

"No, Mum I want Pippa's." he said grabbing for a green box close to him. "Ooh, Syd this one is for you." He threw it at me and I squeaked as I caught it quickly. I looked at the tag and saw it was from Liz.

"Aw, you didn't have to get me a present." I said chuckling. I wasn't expecting any presents really. My Christmas was usually spent with Honey on the couch watching old Christmas movies and eating ribbon candy. I never actually got presents from anyone. It was rare either of my parents came for Christmas, so I didn't get anything from them either.

"I can't just not get my new Daughter in Law a Christmas present." Liz said offering me a cup of coffee.

"Oh no, Mum," Luke said laughing, "You've just made her day with making her coffee. Never mind the present." I laughed at him and he grinned before he went back to ripping apart Pippa's presents. Penguin hopped up on the couch next to me and put her head on my lap. I smiled down at her and rubbed her ears when Andy reached for a random package.

"Oh this one's got your name in it too!" He said tossing it to me gently. Luke's attention snapped to the gift and a look of panic crossed his face suddenly. I frowned at him before looking at the tag.

"Luke!" I gasped glaring at him, "You weren't supposed to get me a present!" He blushed and looked down at the top of Pippa's head.

"You weren't exactly supposed to know about it." He sighed quietly and grabbed the present from Mikey to Pippa. He pulled a stuffed Pikachu from the bag and sighed. Pippa grabbed at it and hugged it giggling. I laughed at her and Luke shook his head. "She doesn't even know what it is and she loves it."

"Mikey has her hooked on Pokemon," I said opening the present from Liz, "poor kid." Luke laughed and grabbed another present. 

I finished opening the present from Liz and found it was a cookbook. I smiled and held it up for Luke to see. He frowned at it and I figured maybe he found it weird to give someone a cookbook. "This is the most helpful gift I have ever gotten." He laughed at me and held out his hand to look at it. 

"Oh my god, Mum," Luke said looking through the pages. "did you just take every recipe you made when I was a kid and stuff them into a book?" Liz laughed at him and shook her head. 

"Where do you think I got them, Luke?"  She sighed. I took the book back from him and set it on the coffee table. I set Luke's present on top of it, I didn't want to open it if he didn't want me to. Clearly he wanted me to open it, but I was going to wait for him to say when it was okay to open it. 

"No!" Luke said suddenly lifting Pippa up out of his lap, "I forgot to get Pippa's present!" 

"Luke, you gave her like nine presents already." I said gesturing to the gifts scattered around him. There were a couple from other people, but they were mostly from him. 

"Yeah, but those aren't the present." He said rolling his eyes, "You know as a kid you get a bunch of presents, but there's always that one present that is the main present that you spend the rest of the year playing with." I had no idea what that was like. As a kid I got lots of presents for Christmas. There was never one specific one that I liked more than the rest. But apparently Luke had experienced that. 

"Luke, she's barely three months old." I said shaking my head at him, "I don't think she cares." But Luke would not have this. He was going to get Pippa the present before the day was up.

Sometime in the afternoon Jack and Ben showed up. Jack brought his girlfriend Celeste who he introduced me to. She was really nice and she gave me a pretty scarf as a present. I had no idea she existed, which was mostly Luke's fault, but I still felt back for not getting her anything. 

We all had dinner together, and it was really much better than the last dinner I experienced. Luke's brothers were probably the best people I had ever met. They were funny and loud and they teased Luke a lot. I was glad they were nice and made my being a noob to the family easier. I was not expecting it to be so easy considering the sort of family background I came from. 

"But Luke just waltzed out completely naked anyway." Jack said, finishing up a story. Luke sighed and shook his head. He had probably heard that story about a million times before. I was practically choking on my own spit at this point I was laughing so hard. 

"Yeah, and I would have made it if Ben hadn't locked the door." Luke said rolling his eyes. I only laughed harder. 

"Oh my god," I said trying to catch my breath, "I have never heard a better story than that." I felt Luke kick me lightly across the table and I kicked him back. 

"So Luke," Celeste said deciding to change the subject, "how does it feel to have a family of your own?" Luke made a face and she giggled and shook her head, "I mean like having a wife and a baby." 

"No, I know," He said laughing, "it's awful! No, it's not. I like it a lot. It's really great. It's the best thing in the world." 

"Awwwww," Ben teased ruffling Luke's hair. "How cute." 

"See this is why I don't say these things." He huffed. He fixed his hair back and I smiled at him. He was genuine at least. 

"I think it's sweet." Celeste said shoving Ben's shoulder, "Anyway, I wouldn't know anything about being married." She glanced at Jack and Luke snorted. Jack sighed and ignored Celeste's comment. "What did you get Sydney for Christmas?" I raised my eyebrows at him and he blushed. 

"He wasn't supposed to get me anything." I said rolling my eyes. 

"You gave me something!" he protested.

"But I didn't spend money on that. I just gave you back all the guitar picks you lost around the house." I laughed. "You spent actual money on a present." 

"You don't know that." Luke said crossing his arms, "You haven't opened it yet." 

"You haven't opened the present?" Celeste gasped. I shook my head and Luke bit his lip as he raised his eyebrows at me. 

"No," I admitted. "It looked like it was important and I didn't want to open it when there wasn't a bunch of people around." I shrugged and Luke grinned stupidly. 

Conversation went on and even after we had all finished eating we talked. It only got louder. It was late before Celeste, Jack, and Ben left. 

And that was when Luke decided to present me with his Christmas gift.